Beyond the turkey and plum pudding, a variety of flavours and cultures
The world is diverse, ever-changing, noisy and chaotic, and regardless in which of the four corners one resides we all, no matter the cultural, religious or political difference, instinctually either escape or celebrate that reality in the same way; we gather.
The word gather is defined as follows “to bring together and take in from scattered sources” and I particularly love that. This great big world has grown considerably smaller and we have become scattered; counties, countries and continents separate families; and how we gather is a reflection of our times. Family dinners, meetings, weddings and even funerals are held and shared online and bring the far-flung back home as if they were here all along.
Regardless of our backgrounds, we celebrate all of life’s milestones in a similar fashion: we gather over food. We observe birth, death and each noteworthy occasion in between with food. I believe that it is in part because we show our love for others through our hands: our hands comfort, our hands caress, and our hands cook. The love that we feel in our heart flows through our fingers—for what other reason can you feel the heart’s pulse in your fingertips?
Author Laurie Colwin, whose food columns were featured in the New York Times and Gourmet magazine, summed it up so beautifully when she said, “The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. A person cooking is a person giving: even the simplest food is a gift.”
A few years ago, when a Syrian family moved into our area they wanted to show gratitude for the welcome that they received. They had few worldly possessions to share, and while expressions translate no matter the background, words do not, so they gave the gift of food.
The past two years have led us all to experience things that we never thought possible, outside of a dimly lit movie theatre. We lost so much, but as a collective group, the very worst was our inability to gather—what was once taken for granted had become impossible. And yet…while we couldn’t be together physically, there was never a shortage of stories about neighbours sharing with neighbours and strangers sharing with strangers—and what they were sharing was food. We cooked more, we baked more, and we shared more.
Now, as we begin to see a new normalcy come to light, we are slowly beginning our ritual of gatherings; the groups may be smaller, but I think that the gratitude may be larger.
In North America we gather to celebrate many different holidays; we look forward to sweetly glazed hams and plump, juicy turkeys; everyone has a favourite savoury or sweet dish that transports them back to their family kitchen. The only other thing that is as powerful as food for bringing back a flood of fond memories may be music.
I have often wondered what a gathering table without borders might look like. If we gathered to celebrate “the festive season” as we will refer to it—because some of our guests will use different terms to describe the period in mid to late December—what might our various attendees bring?
We have invited six guests to our table, and asked three to bring sweet offerings and three to bring savoury dishes.
Our friends from Greece will be bringing along kourabiedes; a delectable type of shortbread cookie made with toasted almonds. These cookies are very traditional, made to mark the beginning of the 12 days of the holiday season.
The aunties from India will be sharing their delicious Rabri. This is a sweet dessert made by slowly simmering milk and skimming the cream, and flavouring with chai, and garnishing with nuts. Christmas or Bada Din in India is pretty much celebrated like we do here on December 25.
From Pakistan we will be enjoying the celebration of Bara Din, (Big Day) which takes place on December 25th in memory of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. The celebration runs concurrent to Christmas, when everyone hopes for a visit from Christmas Baba. In honour of the festivities, a fruit studded cake has been brought to our table.
We will need to balance out all of this sweet with some savoury and we know that we can count on a fabulous dish coming from Italy. After all, Christmas week celebrations in Italy are known
for feasting!
Christmas is the season of abbondanza or abundance, and Christmas meals can often stretch on for six or seven hours! And while there will be a multitude of pasta dishes enjoyed elsewhere, we will be enjoying a beautiful Baked Brie with Olives Jubilee.
Thai oysters with nam jim dressing will be added to our gathering table; although Christmas isn’t officially celebrated in Thailand, it is very much accepted by the primarily Buddhist population.
And lastly, let’s enjoy an Asian dish of crispy spring rolls.
Imagine what such a dinner would look like, a large table spread with an abundance of food, the cadence of different languages and dialects, different colours, different skin tones and different beliefs, all brought together with one commonality; simply to enjoy the pleasure of gathering.
From our home to yours, may you have a happy holiday gathering season.
Pakistani Fruit Cake (Pakistan)